Career Strategist & Storyteller Helping You Get Career Happy

3 Things Not To Do When Job Searching

One of the most difficult periods a person can go through is being unemployed. Being underemployed ranks right up there to, however searching for a job can be depressing, humiliating and downright frustrating.

That is if you let it.

It can also be a time of renewal, evaluation and opportunity.

The choice is yours and it all begins with your mindset. It isn’t easy to maintain a positive attitude when you are job searching. Heck, if being positive were easy the world would be a much different place, now wouldn’t it?

Think about it – who would you rather be around positive or negative people? If you chose negative I am not sure why you are reading my blog – I’m all about the happy so you must have gotten lost somewhere in cyber world.

People are attracted to and respond to positive. Period.

That is why it is critical that you not do the following three things when you are job searching:

Complain

A lot of us have been there, done that in the job searching. We can sympathize and maybe even commiserate with you, however that does not do you any good. It just reinforces the negative aspects of the situation.

Complaining about your situation may garner a little sympathy but what you need now is assistance, not sympathy. Having a positive outlook invites people to want to help you because as a positive person you are more likely to take action on leads they give you and be appreciative of the help.

Complaining also tells the listeners that perhaps this is a constant state of mind for you. What if they do assist you in landing a job – are you going to complain about that job too?

Blame

No one wins at the blame game. When it is all said and done the truth of the matter is you are where you are and it doesn’t matter how you got there because it is over, put it behind you and move on. You may absolutely be in the right if you were let go unjustly, but honestly, no one really cares.

They care about what you can do going forward.

Utilize the events as experience. Try to be impartial when evaluating the past – what did you contribute, what did you not contribute and how can you improve on a situation like that in the future or prevent it? Learn from these lessons, find the positive and utilize that to propel yourself forward.

Life is best lived learning, not repeating.

Refrain

Retreating into yourself and refraining from interactions and life will propel you down the rabbit hole of the dark side. Now is the time that you need to reach out and communicate with people. Not everyone you interact with will be able to assist you in your job searching, nor should you look at them that way.

One of the best ways to brighten your day and improve your situation is to stop focusing on yourself and help someone else. When you are networking make sure to listen to other people and see how you can help them.

Volunteer – hey, you have some extra time now so why not? It may not lead to a job but it will absolutely do some great goods for others. When you give of yourself you allow others to see you as a whole person focused on more in this world than just you.

Give yourself permission to learn something new: a new skill, a new art even the art of relaxing. Take the opportunity to evaluate everything that has lead to this point and realize there is more to life than where you were. There are new people to meet, new experiences to be had and more mistakes to make – and learn from.

You can’t do that hiding away in front of the computer waiting for that perfect job to pop up on a job board. Get out there and start interacting with people. You might find by sheer dumb luck a whole new opportunity you never dreamed of just because you were open to new things.

It takes continually effort to stop yourself from complaining, refraining and blaming and there are times that you just need to get it out. Vent it out to your best friend, your spouse or your coach – but that is it.

The rest of the world needs to see the positive aspects of this new adventure so they know you are welcoming them to ride along with you as you soar to new hights.